Debian 5 update system broken

[Bret Busby <bret@busby.net>]

Hello.

I am running Debian 5 on this computer (have been so far unable to 
instal Debian 6 on anything).

With an update notification (the gold star with the exclamation mark, 
in the taskbar), I got the following error.

"
Could not initialize the package information

A unresolvable problem occurred while initializing the package 
information.

Please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include 
the following error message:

'E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with 
MergeList 
/var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_dists_lenny_updates_main_binary-i386_Packages, 
E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.'
"

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams,
  published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................